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TyERHGAMEADAY'
By George Elmer Cobb.
(Copyright by"W- JJ. Chapinan.)
"Ttii&is no time for a pillow fight
turn on the liot stuff and give those
people to understan3-t21at they must
vacate!' - ""
These were the "words that express
ed the forcible mandate of John
Brooks, mine t)wner, and Vernon
Whyte tfid nokhke'them one bit.
He liked them less than ever when
he reached the destination to which
There Came a Day.
he had been sent. His orders had been
strict. The Brooks Company operat
ed a big mine at Coketon. Some
squatters had built their poor shacks
on a little plat of ground near the
mine. They were to be evicted. If
they went willingly Whyte was au
thorized to pay "for the removal of
.their "household Irapa to any location
reasonably near. If not, their rude
luts were to.be pulled down over
their head? and they could shift for
themselves.
. refined, business-like young man,
with the wqrld all before him, the con
fidential secretary of the millionaire
coal operator, as goed as engaged
to his haughty but beautiful daugh
ter, Portia, might heedlessly and sel
fishly ignore what he saw at Coketon,
His was a free, sterling nature, how
ever. He delivered Tils message to the
unfortunate squatters in a kindly,
sorrowing way. More than one of the
group found him an interested coun
sellor and many of them shared hit
pitying charity from his generqm
purse. One case particularly appealec
to him.
In an old cottage that had one
been the home habitation of a Kttk
farm, Whyte tame across Neva Dor
ris and her brother Gabriel. The firs
moment his eyes rested upon th"
clear, earnest face of the girl some
thing stirred within him as if he ha
met an ideal.' She was composed
modest, business-like. She indicatec
that If the law ordered them to leav
the house they would obey. Yet hei
lip quivered and there was a latest
flush of half-resentment, half indig
nation In her eyes.
"Mo Brooks niight have spared
us, she said. "It .was my dead tamer
who first discovered the coal nere,
cannot tell how, for he died suddenly.
but before his death 1 know he had
some important business negotiations
with the company. He once owned
this ground. I was amazed when he.
died to find that he had left us noth
ing." "Shall I present these facts to Mr.
Brooks," suggested Whyte gently.
"I have written to him twfee in
regard to the matter," responded the
girl. "He has never deigned to no
tice my commtmfcations. I have man
aged to earn a pittance-at sewing. My
poor brother, crippled in one arm, the
result of an overblast in the mine, is
given work there. I do not wish to
antagonize- the company, so we will
move, but I feel that yre have rights